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20100521

Diageo creates distillery-only single malts

Diageo has announced four additions to its line of single malt whiskies. The catch is that you'll only be able to purchase them at their respective distilleries in Scotland.

Lagavulin, Oban, Glenkinchie and Blair Athol soon will be selling a single malt Scotch whisky bottling not available anywhere else in the world. Like other Diageo distillery-only bottlings sold at Talisker, Caol Ila, and Clynelish, these new expressions are bottled at natural cask strength and without an age statement.

"When visitors take the trouble to visit our distilleries, it's nice to be able to give them the option of buying something that they couldn't get anywhere else," said Nick Morgan, spokesman for Diageo's Classic Malts Selection.

"In fact, with three of these new ones -- Lagavulin, Glenkinchie and Oban -- we have been able to take advantage of a number of special casks that had been intended for bottling as Distiller’s Editions over the past few years but were found to be surplus to requirements, and have been sitting in our warehouse ever since.

"These have undergone a second maturation in American oak cask wood that has previously held a fortified wine; in this case, sherry-treated American oak casks."